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Harness Social Media to Create Event Buzz

Every event’s different and varies in the occasion, the planning and the exposure required. If it’s a PR event, for example, then much of the planning will focus on achieving maximum exposure.

But there is one thing every event has in common: when it comes to promotion, you need engagement and most certainly you need to create that ’buzz’ of anticipation.

These days, technology and social media have made promotion, engagement, and exposure so much easier than the old, traditional methods of promoting an event. You just need to know how best to leverage the available tools.

In this blog, we’ve highlighted some ways you can use social media to create that buzz. Read on…

1. Engage: Aside from actively promoting an event, grab your audience’s attention by ‘crowd sourcing’. Get them involved. Ask for their opinion. What would they ideally like to see during the event? A promise to act on the best of their suggestions for the event can help boost attendance.

2. Intrigue: Use social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Eventbrite and the like to reach your target market – your potential attendees. Post teasers, photos or phrases to grab attention. Using a variety of social media channels gives additional exposure, especially in search engines such as Google.

3. Refresh: Don’t just rely on your initial promotion. Keep the engagement alive. One way you could do this is to run a simple competition through Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to create even more interest in the event. For example, you could ask the audience to guess the speaker or the special guests by providing a cryptic clue or two. Offer free tickets or other incentives as prizes.

4. Stream: Facebook has a great live streaming tool. During the event (or in the run-up to it) live-stream what the audience can expect. Tease them with glimpses of what’s coming. It’s likely not all your target market will have the time to go to your event; but if you create enough hype, you can convert the merely ’interested’ into actual attendees.

These are just four ways you can create event buzz through social media. Do you have a novel idea for hooking potential attendees? Share it with us by posting a comment!